Efficacy of herbicides for weed management in soybean (Glycine max L.)

Food Security used to be the prime concern up to 1960s and now emphasis is on sustainable crop production. The agronomic constraints of growing and handling of soybean could be minimized by appropriate mechanical aids for sowing, intercultivation, weed control, harvesting and threshing. Among the constraints, weed infestation in soybean is one of the major hurdles which limit its productivity level. Depending on the type of weeds, their intensity and time of crop weed competition reduces the yields to the extent of 20 to 50 per cent when weeds are grown with crop for long season. The traditional methods of weed control by hand weeding or mechanical means are now becoming costly, tedious, labor intensive and time consuming. Unavailability of sufficient labor at critical stage of crop growth for hand weeding.Under these circumstances, it is inevitable to adopt alternate measures which help to control weeds early in the season and also at critical periods of crop weed competition.The only choice for controlling weeds would be through herbicides at appropriate level.The Author is optimistic that the present book will be well received across soybean growers and researchers in the world